Gloria in Profundis
There has fall on earth for a token
A god too great for the sky.
He has burst out of all things and broken
The bounds of eternity:
Into time and the terminal land
He has strayed like a thief or a lover,
For the wine of the world brims over,
Its splendour is spilt on the sand.
Who is proud when the heavens are humble,
Who mounts if the mountains fall,
If the fixed stars topple and tumble
And a deluge of love drowns all -
Who rears up his head for a crown,
Who holds up his will for a warrant,
Who strives with the starry torrent,
When all that is good goes down?
For in dread of such falling and failing
The fallen angels fell
Inverted in insolence, scaling
the hanging mountain of hell;
But unmeasured of plummet and rod
Too deep for their sight to scan,
Outrushing the fall of man
Is the height of the fall of God.
Glory to God in the Lowest
The spout of the stars in spate-
Where the thunderbolt thinks to be slowest
And the lightening fears to be late;
As men dive for a sunken gem
Pursuing, we hunt and hound it,
The fallen star that has found it
In the cavern of Bethlehem.
G. K. Chesterton
One of my favorite Advent/Christmas poems. What are some of your favorite Advent/Christmas poems, stories, quotations, authors?

2 Comments:
Here's one of mine:
This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There'd have been no room for the child.
--Madeleine L'Engle, "After Annunciation", from WEATHER OF THE HEART
thanks Kathie!
What a great little poem. I have seen it before but had forgotten about it.
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